18 November 2012

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 11182012:

"I was about ready to give up, go home to Georgia and be either a forest ranger or a farmer. But I went down to Canal Street and Lafayette, up in an old rickety elevator and through a glass door to Entertaining Comics where Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines were putting out horror [comic] books. They looked at my work and it was horrible and they gave me a job right away!" -Jack Davis

Those guys at DC Time Warner Entertainment Comics are straight up jerk bags. I mean, c'mon guys. A site like Newsarama is not your enemy. It is speaking to your customer base FOR you. Customers! Forget the word fans. No such damned thing. There are customers and potential customers and that's all there is. And you jerks should never be allowed out of your corner offices long enough to speak to the customers. And speaking of being jerk bags, remember when they said this would not happen? Well, it took about a year. So for about a year, Comixology holds its same day digital titles to 2 PM to give the comics shops one last drop of exclusivity. The same exclusivity that was so important it was withheld from news stand distributors for a few decades. So important that Diamond had to pay shoppers to visit comic book shops and make sure they did not break the lay down dates. But what do new digital outlets have to do to take that exclusivity away from the comics shops? Well, pretty much nothing I guess. Lay down dates? Done. Just roll out the new titles whenever ya feel like it fellas. "Our goal is to provide parity across all platforms, including release times.” Really? THAT is your goal? Now? Now that is your goal? So for "platforms" that made money for decades, like, oh say, the spinner rack and the news stand that goal was not on the table? Those "platforms" can just suck DiDio in hell but the mother flubbin' Nook gets what the mother flubbin' Nook wants?

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival happened somewhere last weekend. (Probably Brooklyn.) Fantagraphics had a report with some great pictures. Here is Tom Spurgeon's link index. Here are the comics Timothy Callahan brought back from the show. John Porcellino had a couple of reports, here and here. The Porcellino reports display a bit of sadness (and or flat out depression) the gist of which is that the trip turned out to be less than profitable. It happens. I've made several convention trips where my ability to afford the gas to get home depended on how many books or sketches I sold in the last hour of the show. (I always got home.) Comics is hard y'all.

Another digital round up at The Comics Reporter. Dang y'all. Rich Tommaso sure has made a ton of great comics in the past couple of years while at the same time working on those Duck books for Fantagraphics.

Tarzan is 100 this year. I've been reading the first Tarzan book on my Kindle. If anyone wants to buy me that Joe Kubert book that would be swell.

Hasbro has filed for a new trademark on ROM. Not to be a negative Nancy but I don't understand how anyone would think this would make ROM's return to the Marvel U more likely. If anything, I think it would make it less likely. Most of Hasbro's comics deals are with IDW now so I suspect that if we get any new comics they might end up there. And, that would mean they would have to be a completely new thing because all of the ROM supporting cast and worlds are in the Marvel U. Its very possible that the idea of ROM comic books has not crossed Hasbro's collective minds at all. Now, if Disney buys Hasbro then that turns everything on its head again. I guess the point is that it's too early to guess how this plays out. If there was a new ROM toy, I might buy one. If there are new ROM comics I might buy them. If there are new ROM comics that continue the character from the Marvel comics and place him back in the Marvel U I promise you I WILL buy them. (At least the first one to see if it is any good. I'm hoping for good.)

Here is a new Gabby Schulz one page comic. This blog post makes is sound like things are not going so good for Schulz. I think he's one of the best cartoonists in North America. If life is getting in the way of Gabby Schulz making comics then we as a race have failed.

I think I mentioned this last week but Josh Latta, one of my favorite cartoonists and bestest pals, is helping his gal Erin move her father from Florida to Baltimore. Josh and Erin live in Baltimore so, do the math, that is a lot of miles. Any help you can give is appreciated. And seriously folks, anything we can do to get as many people out of Florida as possible is a good thing.

Much gross talk lately about fake fans, fake geeks, fake geek girls etc. etc. It's stupid. My 10 year old daughter has a subscription to Life With Archie, reads the Adventure Time comic, the Marceline comic, has impressive collections of Teen Titans, Tiny Titans, Batman and the Outsiders and X-Men comics, plays Batman video games, has tons of super hero toys, dresses up as Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl etc and... likes comics. Girls like comics. You know who likes comics? Everybody likes comics. I hate to break it to any "nerds" or "geeks" out there that have not figured this out yet, but there is nothing special or original about you. You are not an outcast. You are not a rebel. There are millions of people around the world that like all the same crap you like. Get over it.

....was Action Comics 14 by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, Mark Propst and whole bunch of other people. And, it is not a great comic. But I did not read a lot of comics last week. I did read bATMan 14 and thought it was pretty lousy. The worst comic of Scott Snyder's bATMan run. Nothing happens in the thing. Not a damned thing. Just a bunch of Batpants being a big cry baby and a lousy detective. Bah! And I also read the new Animal Man (14) and hated it too. Why is this comic a superhero crossover event now?!? And, I also read All-New X-Men #1 and it was pretty good. Immonen is good. I like the story idea. It will be a good series I think but I just can't take much more of Bendis cramming 8 word balloons in one panel. It is just bad pacing. It is just fundamentally bad comics. Stop it! But, Superpants in Action Comics 14 does all kinds of cool stuff. This is a great Superman story. He fights robot dudes and angels on Mars. This is basically one of the best episodes of Doctor Who ever. Daleks and Weeping Angels versus Doctor Who Superman on Mars! Love it. The only reason this is not a great comic is that Rags Morales is terrible. I've tried people, I really have. I've apologized for Morales and tried to blame his lousy art on the editors and the strict schedule but, the guy has been doing Superman for over a year now and has not drawn his damned face the same way twice. From panel one to panel three on any given page we see Superman's age go from 12 to 62. It is just not even competent. Such a damned shame. I think Morrison has delivered but the comics' art has consistently been an inconsistent mess. Oh what might have been. But, again, I did not read a lot of new comics this week so Doctor Who Superman on Mars wins.

And finally... Happy Thanksgiving and/or Life Day everybody!

Oh, and one more last thing! Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other? It's true! And, I'll probably respond. Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes. It's your intronet. Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

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file under other is Shannon Smith's blog dedicated to the "other" comics that fall just outside (or far outside) of the mainstream. Minicomics, zines, art comics, underground, alternative, indie and yes, even webcomics.

If you would like your work to be reviewed at file under other then send an email and I will send you the mailing address.